4/23/2013

The complaint charges Tsarnaev with two federal crimes: use of a weapon of mass destruction under Title 18, United States Code, Section 2332a and malicious destruction of property resulting in death in violation of Title 18, United States Code, section 844(i).

. . . .

So, what does the government have to prove? On the WMD count, they have to prove that Tsarnaev “(1) knowingly used, or attempted or conspired to use, a weapon of mass destruction, and (2) knowingly did so against persons in the United States.”

. . . .

[The destruction of property charge] requires proof of the following elements: that Tsarnaev (1) maliciously; (2) damaged or destroyed a building; (3) by means of fire or explosive; and (4) the building must have been “used in interstate or foreign commerce or in any activity affecting interstate or foreign commerce.”

After being convicted of the bombings and related offenses, Kimberlin was sentenced to a fifty-year term of imprisonment for manufacturing and possessing a destructive device, and malicious damage by explosives with personal injury in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d) and (f), and 18 U.S.C. §§ 844(f) and (i). He received a concurrent twelve-year sentence for impersonating a federal officer, illegal use of a Department of Defense insignia, and illegal use of the Presidential Seal in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 912, 701, and 713, respectively, and a five-year term for receipt of explosives by a convicted felon in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 842(i)(1). Finally, he was given a four-year sentence by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas on an earlier, unrelated conviction for conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

Subdivision (i) of section 844 has different penalties depending on whether the bomb caused injury and/or death. Bad luck for Tsarnaev that he killed people. If he had simply maimed a dude, the way his brother’s bomb blew off Jeff Bauman’s legs, or the way one of Brett Kimberlin’s bombs blew off Carl DeLong’s leg, maybe he could have served a few years and then become a lefty political activist who harasses people for a living. As it is, Tsarnaev is potentially looking at the death penalty.

4/8/2013

This morning I noted various items of evidence that Aaron Walker has been stalked by Brett Kimberlin and his associates. You’ll never guess who came up with an idea that further confirms this evidence of stalking. Aaron Walker’s nemesis “Kman.”

First, let’s review some of the evidence of stalking that I mentioned this morning:

Kimberlin took photos of Aaron and his wife weeks ago at a Maryland courthouse in a different county from where Kimberlin lives. He parked his car behind Aaron’s, circled the car, saw Aaron’s wife, pulled his car around to face her, and took footage or pictures of her as she sat in her car.

Someone took a surreptitious low-angle picture of Aaron last year at a courthouse, from just feet away. The picture was published at the Kimberlin-related blog Breitbart Unmasked.

A Breitbart Unmasked commenter named Texas Tim, who knew that Kimberlin took the courthouse pictures of Aaron and his wife before that fact was made public, stated that Aaron has a “no trespassing” sign at his house. I verified with Aaron that he does have such a sign. This suggests that Kimberlin associate (or sock puppet) “Texas Tim” physically drove past Aaron’s house in Virginia.

Just throwing this out there… but has anyone considered Google Maps Street View? I would be interested to know if that shows the sign. If it doesn’t, that certainly would lend credibility to the theory that Walker is being stalked in Virginia.

Good question. I checked with Aaron, who shared his street address with me. And guess what? It cannot be seen on Google Street View. Google Street View simply is not available for his address.

Oh, but it gets better. And creepier.

Today, at the Kimberlin-related site Breitbart Unmasked, a post was published with a photo of Aaron’s Virginia house. The post was apparently a response to my post about Aaron’s “no trespassing” sign. The site, which often publishes scoops known only to Kimberlin, mockingly Photoshopped silly signs into the picture of Aaron’s home. The blogger claimed he had gotten the picture from Zillow.com. I could not find the photo at the Zillow site — but, knowing Aaron’s address, I was able to find the identical picture (the non-Photoshopped version) on another real estate site. It was copyright 2009, and there was no genuine “no trespassing” sign.

So, As far as I can tell, the only way “Texas Tim” could know that Aaron has a “no trespassing” sign at his house is if he, or someone he knows, physically drove past Aaron Walker’s house in Virginia. And, again, “Texas Tim” knew non-public information known only to a handful of people including Aaron, his wife . . . and Brett Kimberlin.

It almost seems like Brett Kimberlin or his close confidante drove past Aaron Walker’s house in Virginia. Which sounds, under the circumstances, like it fits a pattern of real life stalking. Why, I can’t put it any better than Kman himself: this fact “lend[s] credibility to the theory that Walker is being stalked in Virginia.”

P.S. I do want to give props to my friend Michelle Malkin for stepping up to the plate today and blogging about all this. The fact is, Michelle has faced the laziness and incompetence of law enforcement in a far more dire situation than this. Michelle is a high profile blogger who has also faced threats and exposure of her home address — when she lived, ironically enough, in Maryland, not too far from Brett Kimberlin. So it takes courage for her to blog about this, knowing that scum like Bill Schmalfeldt have threatened to release the current home addresses of anyone who dared question the Howard County State’s Attorney and their cavalier attitude about the safety of Aaron and his wife. (Clearly, with the publication of a picture of Aaron’s house, Schmalfeldt’s thuggish threat was genuine.) Michelle is the type who stands up for what is right and does not back down. We need more people like her in this world.

UPDATE: I don’t think this is worth a new post, but the evidence is piling up. There is another laughable comment tonight from “Texas Tim” — which comment, by the way, really sounds an awful lot like it was written by Neal Rauhauser — that declares that Aaron’s “no trespassing” sign is to the left of Aaron’s front door. I checked with Aaron just now and it is.

Neal, I mean, “Texas Tim” says he knows this because the “intel community” is monitoring all of Aaron’s communications. Hahahahahahahaha.

Anyway, the Breitbart Unmasked web site says they obtained the photo of Aaron’s house on January 2, 2012 from Zillow. (They also claim I lied about whether they got it from Zillow, which is itself a lie; if you check my post, I merely said I could not find the photo on Zillow. I don’t even understand the purpose of their claiming I lied about something but I guess false accusations come reflexively to these people.) January 2, 2012 is about the time that Brett Kimberlin unnecessarily released Aaron’s identity and personal information in court documents. So the evidence of stalking and coordination with Kimberlin is stacking up quite nicely.

Last month, I showed you pictures that Brett Kimberlin took of Aaron Walker and his wife as they were conducting business at a Maryland courthouse in a different county from where Kimberlin lives.

I blurred out the faces. The web site that first published them, the Kimberlin-related Breitbart Unmasked site, did not.

As I told you last month:

The first time, Aaron says, Kimberlin took pictures or video footage of Aaron’s wife while she was waiting in the car outside the courthouse. Aaron had seen Kimberlin inside the courthouse and asked his wife to wait in the car, where he thought she would be safer. But Kimberlin slipped outside without Aaron noticing. According to Aaron’s post, Kimberlin parked his car behind Aaron’s, circled the car, saw Aaron’s wife, pulled his car around to face her, and took footage or pictures of her as she sat inside the car. Aaron says Kimberlin smiled as he did this, which is extraordinarily creepy.

Aaron and his wife reported the incident to police, and Kimberlin photographed them as they did so (see the second picture). Aaron’s wife was reportedly in tears for much of the rest of the day.

Since then, the Breitbart Unmasked site has published another picture taken of Aaron, apparently at a courthouse, which it first published about a year ago, when Brett Kimberlin was trying to have Aaron jailed for blogging. It is a low angle shot taken in a hallway without Aaron’s knowledge. Whoever took it was just feet away when they surreptitiously took the picture.

Aaron and his wife recently spoke to a local prosecutor in Maryland, and according to Aaron, when Aaron’s wife told the prosecutors about the feelings of fear she had experienced, the prosecutor replied: “If you’re so concerned about your safety, don’t come to Maryland.”

This isn’t a post about the prosecutor’s refusal to file charges in any particular case. This is about that comment, and the attitude it represents. John Hoge asks what is, to my way of thinking, the relevant question: “Is it the policy of [the] State’s Attorney that non-residents of Maryland must or should avoid entering the state if they are being stalked by a Maryland resident?”

I’d like to add one detail to complete the picture for you. The pictures above first appeared at the Breitbart Unmasked web site, which often breaks news known only to Brett Kimberlin. When those pictures were first published, the site refused to say who had taken them. But a commenter at the Breitbart Unmasked web site named “Texas Tim” admitted (perhaps inadvertently) that it was Kimberlin. (“Texas Tim” always claims to have inside information favorable to Kimberlin about every controversy; in a future post I will demonstrate how comical his claims to insider knowledge are.) The fact that “Texas Tim” knew Kimberlin had taken the pictures, when that fact had not yet been publicly revealed by anyone, demonstrates a close relationship between “Texas Tim” and Brett Kimberlin. If Texas Tim is not Kimberlin’s sock puppet, they are certainly sharing information in back channels.

Why does this matter? Because around this same time, Kimberlin associate “Texas Tim” made reference to Aaron having a “no trespassing” sign by the front door of his Virginia house. I called up Aaron to ask if he actually has such a sign by his front door. He told me he does.

He had not publicly revealed that when I asked.

How does Brett Kimberlin’s pal (or sock puppet) “Texas Tim” know that Aaron has a “no trespassing” sign by his front door in Virginia?

Good guess? Or has someone been by Aaron’s house to look at it, and perhaps take pictures?

Aaron Walker doesn’t have to go to Maryland to be stalked.

“If you’re so concerned about your safety, don’t come to Maryland.”

It’s hard for me to envision how a comment like this from a prosecutor can be appropriate.

3/18/2013

The antics of the Brett Kimberlin crazies took another step into real life at BlogBash, when Brett Kimberlin sent a loony photographer to stalk the attendees. On Friday, conservative blogger and BlogBash attendee Yid With Lid published photos of the photographer. Here is one:

Yid With Lid also revealed that the photographer told him who had sent him: “Eventually he admitted who sent him to BlogBash —Brett Kimberlin, the Speedway Bomber.”

Bill Schmalfeldt, the editor of the Kimberlin-related site Breitbart Unmasked, opined on Twitter that Yid With Lid must be lying, because Brett Kimberlin would not be so foolish as to send a photographer who would stand out in the open and take pictures:

Think again, Schmalfeldt. Breitbart Unmasked yesterday published a post (no links for stalkers) that confirmed Yid With Lid’s post, by publishing a video taken by the photographer. While I won’t link the post, I will embed the video so you can see for yourself a) Kimberlin’s stalking behavior and b) the “professionalism” of the photographer.

The Kimberlin folks will call this “journalism.” Watch it and decide for yourself. The photographer screams at passersby: “Warning! Right-wing CPAC maggots! Woot Woot!” He talks about how he is going to “freak out” the people inside and runs up to the window to take a picture. He screams about his “freedom and liberty!!!” to take pictures on the sidewalk, and cackles. He shouts at Ted Cruz when he comes out of the venue, asking him what Jesus would cut from the budget. And so forth.

At one point near the end of the video you see Stacy McCain, Mandy Nagy (Liberty Chick), Lee Stranahan, and others taking pictures of the photographer. At this point he declines to say who he’s working for. Proof Yid With Lid was lying?! Um, not exactly. Earlier in the video you see Jeff Dunetz, the Yid With Lid blogger, taking a picture of the photograher. The sound goes out for a few seconds. I assume this is when the photographer admitted Kimberlin had sent him.

Isn’t stalking fun when it goes from the Internet into real life?

P.S. There is a very amusing post I may write about “Texas Tim,” the Breitbart Unmasked commenter whose function is to show up on every post and profess inside knowledge of any given situation. Texas Tim is not only a laughable fabulist, he is provably tied to Kimberlin. Let me know if you’re interested in reading such a post.

3/11/2013

Several days ago, the Web site “Breitbart Unmasked” published pictures of Aaron Walker and his wife taken outside a Maryland courthouse. I have blurred out the faces from the photographs, but want to otherwise reproduce them here for you:

The site attributed the grainy, stalkerish photos to a “witness” that the site refused to name.

In a post that describes an apparent escalation of Kimberlin’s obsessive behavior towards Aaron and his wife, Aaron describes how Kimberlin has shown up twice at a courthouse at times when Aaron was there.

The first time, Aaron says, Kimberlin took pictures or video footage of Aaron’s wife while she was waiting in the car outside the courthouse. Aaron had seen Kimberlin inside the courthouse and asked his wife to wait in the car, where he thought she would be safer. But Kimberlin slipped outside without Aaron noticing. According to Aaron’s post, Kimberlin parked his car behind Aaron’s, circled the car, saw Aaron’s wife, pulled his car around to face her, and took footage or pictures of her as she sat inside the car. Aaron says Kimberlin smiled as he did this, which is extraordinarily creepy.

Aaron and his wife reported the incident to police, and Kimberlin photographed them as they did so (see the second picture). Aaron’s wife was reportedly in tears for much of the rest of the day.

On another day when Aaron had a scheduled hearing, Aaron says, John Hoge of Hogewash saw Kimberlin circling the parking lot on two different occasions, presumably looking for Aaron’s car again. (A car with Virginia plates stands out in a Maryland parking lot.)

That Kimberlin was the mystery witness described by the “Breitbart Unmasked” web site should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. “Breitbart Unmasked” is a site devoted to dishonest character assassination, and its targets have one thing in common: they have been critics of Brett Kimberlin. The site has published scoops on court appearances involving Kimberlin minutes after those appearances have ended.

What is surprising is that the site would actually bother to document Kimberlin’s stalkerish behavior. It’s as if they are proud to publish these photos, which send a chill down the spines of normal people.

This news comes on the heels of reports that Kimberlin and his associate Neal Rauhauser have made calls to the establishment hosting the BlogBash party, which Aaron plans to attend, threatening the establishment with protests by Muslims due to Aaron’s involvement with the “Everyone Draw Mohammed” web site, which Aaron and others created to stand up to Islamic extremists who would kill those who dared to depict Mohammed.

Given Kimberlin’s well-documented history, the pictures shown above and the behavior described in Aaron’s post cause me concern. I encourage Aaron and John Hoge to stay safe.

While monitoring the servers, it was brought to our attention that your domain, leestranahan.com, was undergoing a brute force attack. The purpose of the attack was meant to gain access to your wp-admin area, allowing an authorized person to have complete control of your site.

The email lists URLs of specific posts that have been attacked.

Many of them are related to Brett Kimberlin.

P.S. There will be a major hearing in Aaron Walker’s case against Brett Kimberlin on Tuesday. It is worth noting that Kimberlin has pled the Fifth with respect to Walker’s discovery requests. One of those requests relates to Kimberlin’s knowledge about SWATting. Ted Frank notes on Twitter that, in the civil context, the court is entitled to draw an adverse inference from a litigant’s invocation of the Fifth (something a prosecutor could never do in a criminal trial, of course).

All of this makes for a potentially very interesting day on Tuesday. And raises the question: why does Brett Kimberlin think it might incriminate him to answer a question about what he knows about SWATting?

10/4/2012

I have learned that my wife and I are being sued by Nadia Naffe, who leveled accusations at James O’Keefe last year, and was the subject of criticism at this blog earlier this year. Also named in the lawsuit are Los Angeles County, and Steve Cooley, the District Attorney of Los Angeles County. The complaint has been filed in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, Case No. 2:12-cv-08443-GW-MRW, and is captioned Nadia Naffe v. John Patrick Frey, et al.

Brett Kimberlin associates have played a role in instigating this lawsuit. Kimberlin’s associate Neal Rauhauser recently admitted in a complaint to my office that he introduced Naffe to attorney Jay Leiderman:

I brought this situation to the attention of Los Angeles attorney Jay Leiderman, then introduced he and Naffe, and he is now representing her in a civil case against Frey.

In the same document, Rauhauser declared that if Naffe is successful, he believes it will put an end to my career as a Deputy D.A.:

[T]he lawsuit he faces from Nadia Naffe is another matter and it is understood that if she prevails that may put an end to Frey’s career in the DA’s ofﬁce.

Above: Neal Rauhauser and Nadia Naffe, 2012

As regular readers are well aware, Rauhauser has long wanted me sued, fired, and so forth for several reasons — one of which is the fact that I have defended James O’Keefe on this blog. Here is a quote from Rauhauser from July 2011:

This new situation is a little different. Patterico I want to see fired from his Deputy District Attorney job, barred from practicing any sort of law, sued to the point of bankruptcy, or criminally charged. Better yet, all five of these would not be sufficient for this tiresome little punk. The motivation, briefly, is that he used to spend his time vigorously defending that little creep James O’Keefe, and his behavior of late seems to indicate he had a hand in the stalking and smearing of Congressman Weiner.

I have not seen the complaint, but a tort claims action Naffe filed earlier this year primarily related to my publication of public documents from the federal PACER system in this post. (The PACER system is open to the public. This, by the way, is the same PACER system that Leiderman encourages his Twitter followers to consult, for details on the lawsuit.)

Naffe’s previous claim also attaches Brett Kimberlin’s State Bar complaint against me. That is one of several details showing a connection between Kimberlin (and his supporters) and Naffe. To cite just a few examples:

Rauhauser and Naffe discussed the issuance of a subpoena for James O’Keefe’s emails.

Kimberlin issued a subpoena for those emails, in a lawsuit (Kimberlin vs. Allen) where there had already been a final judgment.

Rauhauser has claimed that he then rode the train with Naffe to collect the emails.

Breitbart Unmasked also told Naffe to complain about me to my office, reasoning that such complaints cause me to have less power as a blogger:

I am fortunate to have pro bono representation from two fine lawyers: Kenneth P. White (whom you may know from Popehat), and Ron Coleman (whom you may know from Likelihood of Confusion). I will be responsible for expenses, so any help would certainly be appreciated. The tip jar is on the sidebar.

I don’t know to what extent (if any) I will be blogging on this case as it develops. However, I am confident that the court will see that my speech about Naffe was protected under the First Amendment.

On the advice of Ken and Ron, I will not be allowing comments on this post.

9/4/2012

I told you over the weekend how pro-Occupy and pro-Kimberlin forces had threatened Lee Stranahan and Brandon Darby, who participated in the making of Occupy Unmasked. The story was reported in the Hollywood Reporter:

“We’ll be legitimately raping Brandon Darby and Lee Stranahan for the next several days while they are tied up with the movie premier at the RNC,” reads an email from occupyunmasked2012@gmail.com. The email includes Darby’s and Stranahan’s cell phone numbers.

One tweet reads, “While @S[tr]anahan is in Tampa this week, should Texas rapists be told where to find his wife since he supports the rape of everyone else?”

If you want the details, Joe Brooks has them here and here. (The bad guys attempted to wipe some of the evidence off the Internet, but Joe preserved it.)

The tweet about rapists being told where to find Stranahan’s wife came from pro-Kimberlin tweeter OccupyRebellion. Then pro-Kimberlin blogger the Liberal Grouch asked Stranahan: “How would your wife feel about having John Finman Norton skulking around in her back yard taking pictures, Stranny?” After assuring Stranahan that his wife was “safe” the Liberal Grouch added: “Better idea, Stranny. How about we find out where you are staying and rape YOU?” Then he added that nobody would actually do that, throwing insults at Stranahan about his cleanliness, and concluded:

But maybe it would be nice for a pro-rape asshole such as yourself to understand the fear a woman faces at the concept of rape.

How many men do you figure it would take to hold you down, Stranny.

I bet one could do it.

(Emphasis in original.)

The Liberal Grouch also published Stranahan’s address in a post titled “Let’s Visit the Stranahans at Home!”

So: Aaron commented about all that, and the Liberal Grouch twisted Aaron’s words and claimed that Aaron had defamed him somehow. Now pro-Kimberlin entity Breitbart Unmasked says he will be raising money for the Liberal Grouch to sue Aaron.

8/28/2012

People keep trying to add an accurate phrase about Brett Kimberlin’s criminal history to the first paragraph of Brett Kimberlin’s Wikipedia entry. And keep getting shot down — to the point where editors are threatening to remove the entry entirely.

The offending phrase, which keeps getting removed, is “a convicted drug dealer, bomber, and political activist.” Someone keeps adding the phrase in, and it keeps getting deleted, as you can see from the edit page.

After being convicted of the bombings and related offenses, Kimberlin was sentenced to a fifty-year term of imprisonment for manufacturing and possessing a destructive device, and malicious damage by explosives with personal injury in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d) and (f), and 18 U.S.C. §§ 844(f) and (i). He received a concurrent twelve-year sentence for impersonating a federal officer, illegal use of a Department of Defense insignia, and illegal use of the Presidential Seal in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 912, 701, and 713, respectively, and a five-year term for receipt of explosives by a convicted felon in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 842(i)(1). Finally, he was given a four-year sentence by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas on an earlier, unrelated conviction for conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

The editors who keep removing the phrase claim that it violates “BLP rules” relating to a biography of a living person. A Wikipedia editor told me convictions aren’t supposed to go in the lede paragraph of a living person’s entry. Whether it’s accurate or not, they say, adding this accurate information in the lede paragraph actually risks getting the whole article pulled:

What part of it was slander? He is a convicted drug dealer and bomber. Is there any contention that he isn’t? Gotrexman (talk) 01:01, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

I don’t care. It’s still against the BLP rules. You want to get it deleted outright instead on the 2nd attempt by JusticeLeader? ViriiK (talk) 01:03, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

This isn’t the end of the world; Kimberlin’s criminal history is amply described elsewhere in the entry. I’m just having a hard time understanding why the same rule doesn’t apply to, say, Charles Manson:

Charles Milles Manson (born November 12, 1934) is an American criminal and musician who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s.[1][2]:163–4, 313[3] He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the murders of Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca carried out by members of the group at his instruction.

George Gordon Battle Liddy (born November 30, 1930) known as G. Gordon Liddy was the chief operative for the White House Plumbers unit that existed from July–September 1971, during Richard Nixon’s presidency. Separately, along with E. Howard Hunt, Liddy organized and directed the Watergate burglaries of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building in May and June 1972. After five of Liddy’s operatives were arrested inside the DNC offices on June 17, 1972, subsequent investigations of the Watergate scandal led to President’s Nixon’s resignation in August 1974. Liddy was convicted of burglary, conspiracy and refusing to testify to the Senate committee investigating Watergate. He served nearly fifty-two months in federal prisons.

or any other examples you can probably find where living people have had their criminal histories mentioned in the lede paragraph of their entires.

Luckily, a hero has come to save the day. The page has been locked to prevent further editing — without the offending accurate phrase. The editor who locked the page?

The fellow who described the entry on Kimberlin as an “attack page” that “simply painted him as a man with no positive qualities at all, which is obviously problematic in a neutral encyclopedia.” Who said that “reliable sources” could be found saying I had “harassed” the Readers’ Representative of the Los Angeles Times, but refused to specify said “reliable sources.”

U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss strongly criticized the Department of Justice on Wednesday for its “notably silent” response to a string of anonymous pranks wherein authorities have been dispatched guns ablaze to the homes of conservative commentators after bogus shooting claims.

Chambliss’s letter is below. Note that he says Holder personally assured him that he would give special attention to this matter, but then sent a boilerplate response that was silent on whether federal law enforcement is looking into all the cases:

I was told my case was closed earlier this year, and that Mike Stack’s had been closed as well. After that, Erick Erickson and Aaron Walker were SWATted. Since that time, I have not been interviewed about the SWATtings by a single law enforcement official — except for a brief conversation with the cops who had just shown up at Aaron Walker’s door.

I don’t know what they’re doing — but if they haven’t even talked to one of the victims of the four SWATtings, after two new SWATtings have occurred, I suspect they’re not doing much.

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